225 Ways: Join a book club, start new habits, learn a new language

Grow your intellectual self

13. Start or join a book club. You’ll be surprised how many there are already. There’s nothing quite like reading the same book as a group of friends and then trading views on it.

14. Blow up your habits and try new things. Take your brain off cruise control, and force yourself to go to different (safe) places and do new things and contemplate the world around you. It will be like caffeine for the brain, and you never know whom you might meet that you otherwise wouldn’t have.

15. Learn a foreign language. It’s not only useful in social situations, but it’s some of the best exercise for the brain.

16. Take some time to study kids and learn from them. Really. We may have been little unsocialized monsters, but in every other way we were at our best when we were kids: curious, accepting, loving, adventurous, amazed at the simple miracles of life. Feed the child inside you; it will make you smarter and happier, and more fun to be with.